If you have fear of holes (trypophobia)..

[Swalewhale]

...what does it feel like?

I'm asking because DD (7) has this and I want to understand it better. She's not really articulating why she hates the look of holes.

Does it make you feel sick like, for me, someone dragging their fingernails on a carpet would?
Or does it make you anxious like before you have to have an injection or medical treatment?

If you have this fear do you also have OCD or obsessive thoughts? I'm wondering if the two go hand in hand but I hope not.

It takes me feel uncomfortable, like I don't want to look yet am compelled to look, then I feel a bit sick but not like I'm going to actually vomit. I'm also afraid of heights but that is dizziness, flip flopping stomach and heart racing. Sometimes it stops me moving or speaking. The trypo is less intense to me.

I think its a fear of infestation. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was a phobia though as I do find myself googling them. I don't like looking at them but I feel compelled to and I also can't look away.

Grape can you just post the name of the video in plain text? Then people can search it if they want to but the preview won't come up. If you put the youtube link on then MN forum software automatically puts the preview.

I also get it from the Sanex advert. It's gross, like it's a fear of something going wrong in the body. Also a species of toads that have bulges on their backs. Hideous.

I have OCD and Misophonia.

I hate holes, a crumpet puts me on edge. I get this tingling feeling and feel itchy from my head to my toes and cause a shiver almost in my spine.

Revulsion here too and it makes me itch. Like I want to scrape off all the bits, like they're on my arms and back and head and if I scratch it will all come flaking off and I need it GONE. It makes me feel a bit sick.

It's not just holes either, there was a photo a while ago on lots of click ait thumbnails of a strawberry with the seeds sprouting, and I couldn't look at it I just had an overwhelming need to scratch all the sprouts off. Like they were growing on me.

In fact this evening I watched antiques roadshow and there was a pair of vases on the guess the value thing with tiny individual flowers stuck all over and I couldn't look, wanted to scratch them off and felt like they were growing out of my skin.

@BertieBotts
It's on educational you tube channel called "Be Smart", the video is "Are You Afraid of Holes?"

It’s like it’s alive/ alien / growing / unnatural

Yes this

I’ve always had this and never realised it’s a ‘thing’ until reading about it on MN. It’s really really unpleasant. Makes my skin crawl and I feel panicky and revolted. I have physical feelings like an itchy scalp and prickly skin. It’s really horrible.

Me too. No ND. I am repulsed, my stomach flips over, but I am compelled to look. If you expose yourself, it gets easier btw. I don't like those seed head things, and also, bizarrely, something DH does to his eggs, and little bits get left which have tiny holes in 🤢

I have this too and I hate it . Some utter utter fuckwit posted a picture of a seed pod in my Facebook and that was it . Felt utterly repulsed and I could not shift the picture out of my head literally for several weeks . Not only did it prevent me from getting to sleep because it would pop into my head last minute, but it would wake me too . Awful . Can't drive behind a loaded scaffold lorry either these days .

I have this. It's like a crawling feeling and uncomfortable makes me feel sick and uneasy. I guess a bit like standing on a high balcony feels to someone with a fear of heights? Similar feeling. I have to look away. I first realised the fear seeing a close up picture of bone and its other similar textures i struggle with. Holey textures i guess.

I have no offical diagnosis but have very strong OCD traits, which i never realised until DH pointed out my long bedtime ritual of needing to line objects up, close doors, leave things in certain places, wasn't "normal". I have intrusive thoughts alongside this.

I also have strong ASD and milder ADHD traits.

I have it! It makes me feel unsettled and irritated and weird and my teeth feel like they’re literally itching! I also have OCD, anxiety and ADHD.

I don't get this but I understand the evolutionary bit and indication of disease. I have severe ocd, and ASD.
I do faint if someone starts talking about broken bones or skin - ended up in the assessment ward at a and e after overhearing a patient having bone resetting explained 😳

I’ve had it since I was young but didn’t know how to accurately describe it. I would always say I found holes really sickening.

Now I’m older it’s as so many people have described, it’s a repulsion and fear of decay/maggots/something organic coming out of holes etc. if I see a picture then it’ll play on me for days or weeks. It’s something I don’t want to look or think of but can’t stop myself.

There was a shot of some part of the missing Malaysian airways plane on Netflix that I can’t stop thinking of atm - it reminds me of barnacles in the way the metal has been flayed open. It’s on repeat in my mind.

Interestingly, I’m awaiting an ADHD diagnosis and have intrusive thoughts in other areas.

It affected my sleep for days after I inadvertently saw these sorts of pictures :( made me feel awful. I was surprised at the intensity of the feelings. I’m afraid of heights but it was a different sort of feeling. Disgust and revulsion. My skin crawled. DO NOT Google these images. Horrible.
FWIW I don’t suffer with ADHD and as far as I’m aware, NT. Such a strange thing.

Interesting thread. My DD is 4 and used to have this but is slowly growing out of it. For example she never used to eat crumpets but she will happily eat them now.

Really intense bodily discomfort, intrusive thoughts and can't shut it out/calm down for a while after I see it. It feels like something is just very wrong and threatening somehow. Pluse A weird urge to scratch my skin off!!!!

I have OCD too, I wonder if there is some relationship between the two

The best I could describe it would probably e how you might feel if you saw someone doing something really awful and discussing to their own body? It feels somehow physically unnatural. Really hard to explain

I have this but no OCD or ADHD.

Someone mentioned the Suriname Toad. That was when I first realised it was a real thing and not just me being weird. I vomited the first time I saw that and wretch now even thinking of it.

The skin on my back, neck and scalp feels really tight and tingling when I'm triggered. My shoulders and arms kind of uncontrollably rise up - sort of covering me head. I can feel detached from my body. It's horrible.

It's a bit unpredictable what will trigger me. Holes that have, or could have, things in then; irregular patterns; optical illusions - especially things that switch from looking like bumps into looking like holes; certain flowers; the toad. But other common triggers like crumpets don't bother me.

I'm also claustrophobic but that is a completely different feeling.

I love that Pp have described it so well. Definitely a repulsion, not a fear. I don't want to look or touch or be anywhere near or even think about them, but I'm not scared. It's not like fear of needles or heights.

It makes me think of decay and rotting and maggots. Some pictures are more triggering than others - a lotus head freaks me out, but I can eat crumpets all day long. Sometimes it's irregular rows of protrusions instead of holes. For example the way seeds are arranged in a pepper.

And yes to the obtrusive thoughts, but I think only about this. It can take me weeks to get an image out of my head, and I have to really work at it. But im not OCD or ADHD or have any other intrusive thoughts.

That is actually quite sad, tbh. Because the video was nothing to do with triggering people, but to make people understand why people react to the holes. It's an educational video full of information, but you actually made MNHQ delete the link so no one who may be interested can access that link. Why would you do that, especially as a parent who have a child who suffers from Trypophobia?

Because the thumbnail image was a photo of a load of holes!! It was making people feel sick. I did actually watch the video, thank you it was interesting.

Agree with the PP's.

After seeing something that triggers it, it's like an intrusive thought and sticks around for ages making me feel sick and tingly and repulsed.